Which Ohio Licensing Exams Are Hardest to Pass First Time?

Ohio is unusual among states in publishing not just issued licenses but also applications that never became licenses. That makes it possible to estimate, for an entire profession, how often people were licensed on their first attempt — a rough proxy for exam difficulty and program preparation quality.

First-attempt licensure by profession

The spread is narrower than most people expect. Registered nursing — the longest and most academically demanding of the three paths — has the lowest first-attempt rate, but only by about two points. LPN and cosmetology candidates, whose programs are shorter and more tightly scoped to the exam, clear it slightly more often on the first try.

How to read this

• These are licensure-attempt rates derived from application records, not official exam pass rates. They approximate exam history.
• An unsuccessful application can reflect an incomplete or withdrawn file rather than a failed exam.
• Rates cover everyone currently licensed in Ohio, spanning many decades of testing — not a single recent cohort.
• For the official current NCLEX figures, the NCSBN publishes quarterly pass rates by program.

The encouraging conclusion

Across every profession we measured, roughly nine in ten people who eventually got licensed did it on their first attempt — and, importantly, the remaining one in ten still got licensed. A failed first attempt is common enough to be unremarkable and is not the end of a career. You can look up any individual’s attempt history by name with our free tool.